Renewed another year, Louisiana rural health disparities panel looks to turn study to action

By Claire Sullivan
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — A rural health disparities panel has had its life extended a year by the Louisiana Legislature, and now members are looking to take action to lift the state’s low health rankings.

“This year we are going to be actually bombarding (the legislature) with bills in hopes that we’ll get some of them passed,” said Karen Wyble, chair of the Health Disparities in Rural Areas Task Force and an executive at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center.

The panel is charged with developing strategies “to improve health outcomes for rural and under-served communities” in the resolution Rep. Dustin Miller, D-Opelousas, authored. Their work will culminate with a report submitted by Feb. 1, 2024, to the House and Senate committees on health and welfare.

Rural areas make up roughly 80 percent of Louisiana’s geographical area and 26 percent of its population, according to the resolution. Nearly all of the state’s population – 98 percent or 63 of the state’s 64 parishes – lives in federally-designated health professional shortage areas..

Health outcomes are significantly worse for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous Americans than for white people, research shows. The pandemic worsened health disparities, “particularly in rural areas,” the resolution notes.

“Our legislature is supporting us to go across Louisiana and talk to Indigenous populations, minority populations that have specific needs and be able to get their input into what our call to action is gonna be for the upcoming year,” Wyble said at a recent task force meeting.

The panel is a subcommittee of the Louisiana Department of Health’s Statewide Health Equity Consortium.

This article originally published in the July 31, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.